News Round-Up

• “Labour slaps down Emily Thornberry over VAT on private school fees” – Labour’s plans to impose VAT on private school fees have descended into chaos after Emily Thornberry suggested it will increase class sizes in the state sector, according to the Mail.
• “Starmer will bring back freedom of movement if he wins, says Labour official” – A Labour official has boasted that Sir Keir Starmer will bring back freedom of movement if he wins, says the Sun.
• “‘The marriage is off!’ Farage rejects plea from Suella Braverman” – Nigel Farage says “all marriage plans are off” when it comes to rejoining the Conservative Party, reports GB News.
• “Rishi Sunak sounds defiant despite growing alarm about Tory campaign” – A defiant Rishi Sunak says he won’t quit ahead of the election despite growing panic over the D-Day shambles and the Reform threat, according to the Mail. 
• “Fighting over the Tory manifesto begins a day early” – Some Tories are already voicing alarm that the party’s 2024 manifesto is playing it too safe on tax and borders and lacks big ideas, writes Katy Balls in the Spectator.
• “Lib Dems plan £9.4 billion election tax raid on banks and super-rich” – The Lib Dems have unveiled a £9.4 billion tax raid on banks and the super-rich to help fund the NHS and social care in England in their manifesto, reports the Mail. 
• “Is the Lib Dems’ election campaign silly or savvy?” – Ed Davey’s Lib Dems are conducting an apolitical election campaign, but is this a silly or savvy approach to winning over voters? asks Charlotte Henry in the Spectator.
• “Lib Dem policies are as barmy as their campaign” – The Lib Dems have been taken over by class warriors and outright fools, says Ross Clark in the Spectator.
• “Labour has broken Gen Z’s heart” – Moral purists can’t cope with Starmer’s realpolitik, writes Poppy Sowerby in UnHerd.
• “No, Farage is not being racist about Sunak” – Farage’s claim that the PM is unpatriotic clearly had nothing to do with race. Enough with the smears, says Rakib Ehsan in Spiked.
• “Farage and the case of the vanishing virtues” – In TCW, Dr. Gregory Slysz discusses Nigel Farage’s recent comments on British values and Muslim integration.
• “Rishi Sunak on D-Day” – On Substack, Duke Maskell has penned a satirical letter to the British people from Rishi Sunak explaining why he skipped the final part of the D-Day commemorations.
• “The EU has been shaken to its core” – Europeans have had enough of the Brussels oligarchy, writes Fraser Myers in Spiked.
• “EU vote will drag bloc further Right than ever before” – Parties gaining support in the European elections share a common antipathy towards Brussels overreach, migrants and the EU’s Net Zero target, says James Crisp in the Telegraph. 
• “The truth about the rise of the ‘far-Right’ in Europe” – Look closely at the results of the EU elections and we can see the taming of some populist shrews, writes Fraser Nelson in the Spectator.
• “Europe’s insurgent Right won’t change anything” – The impact of the EU elections won’t be as significant as people fear or hope, says Thomas Fazi in UnHerd.
• “Giorgia Meloni invokes Churchill as she triumphs in EU elections” – Giorgia Meloni has emerged as the big winner of the European election in Italy, with her Brothers of Italy party taking 29% of the vote, reports the Telegraph. 
• “Olaf Scholz has been humiliated – and Germany is now in crisis” – The message from voters is clear: mainstream politicians aren’t addressing their concerns, says Katja Hoyer in the Telegraph.
• “The arrogance and incompetence of Welsh Labour” – The Vaughan Gething scandal exposes the rot at the heart of the Welsh Government, writes Austin Williams in Spiked.
• “Are American Jews moving Right?” – In recent years, Jews are moving toward the centre, and, somewhat tentatively, even the Right, says Joel Kotkin in City Journal.
• “Bird flu, fear and perverse incentives” – We have allowed the development of a system where outbreaks are almost all that matter, writes Dr. David Bell for the Brownstone Institute.
• “After throwing scientists under the bus for a media smearing, Cochrane backtracks on mask review statement” – Editor Karla Soares-Weiser has still not explained her unprofessional collusion with New York Times columnist Zeynep Tufekci, who falsely claimed she “corrected” the Cochrane mask review, says Paul D. Thacker on Substack.
• “The fallacy of ‘British values’” – Nationhood cannot be reduced to abstractions, writes Sam Bidwell in the Critic.
• “A legal win for a mast objector in Cheltenham” – Authorities must assess the impacts of radiation on metal implants and pacemakers, says Gillian Jamieson on her Substack.
• “Is Paris about to leave the Paris Agreement?” – If greens play hardball, Le Pen would likely choose economic sanity over damaging climate commitments, predicts Eric Worrall in WUWT?
• “When breast isn’t best” – A major maternity support group is at war with its trustees over its insistence that men should be allowed to breastfeed, writes Heather Welford in the Critic.
• “Starbucks’s political activism has backfired” – If you become a political company, you have to pick a side and stick with it, says John Masko in UnHerd.
• “How California became a warning to the world” – A new dominant class of oligarchs and woke bureaucrats has bled the Golden State dry, writes Joel Kotkin in Spiked.
• “Can the TXSE dethrone Wall Street?” – New York has been losing its dominance in finance for years and the new Texas Stock Exchange (TXSE) is another sign that it may not be able to bank on that status in the future, says Allison Schrager in City Journal.
• “Revenge of the Blob” – On GB News, Steven Edginton says some civil servants have discussed “arresting” Nigel Farage and branded Reform an “extremist far-Right group”.

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